This invention relates to monitoring elevator operation, and providing information useful in servicing, in response to operational parameters of the elevator.
The monitoring of elevator operation for maintenance and repair purposes has long been known. Typically, counters may record the number of runs, the number of times a door opens or closes, loss of safeties, and the like. In some cases, the data is reduced by statistical means, such as providing the mean time to open a door or other event, coupled with a normal variance thereof. Frequently, this approach will mask data that is significant in maintaining and servicing elevators; the data is difficult to understand and apply to elevator servicing; and it has been found to be of little value in resolving elevator problems during repair. The use of present-day elevator monitoring systems has been shown to result in many unnecessary service calls, and when the service personnel arrives at the elevator, the information does not significantly help in pointing to the problem. All of these problems are further compounded when the elevator is operating normally at the time that the service personnel arrives.
Objects of the invention include provision of improved analysis of elevator operating data to trigger service calls; providing elevator operation messages that more closely relate to real elevator problems; minimizing data storage requirements in elevator monitoring; providing elevator maintenance information which is simple to understand and can be managed easily by service personnel; providing elevator information which can be managed easily by service personnel without the help of an analysis tool, such as a microcomputer; providing improvements in information which may be used for routine maintenance as well as for servicing failures.
According to the present invention, operational parameters of an elevator, including conditions and events, are monitored and used to develop the likelihood that an event is caused by passenger interference, rather than by component failure. According further to the invention, similar notable events are analyzed to determine if they occurred on the same floor or on different floors, and to provide a related floor factor. In accordance with the invention, the occurrence of a notable event is processed with prior notable events to generate symptoms including the first and second features of a group of related features and the related floor factor. In accordance further with the invention, the probability that failure of a particular component is the cause of an indicated symptom is estimated from expert opinion and probability of such component failing. Further, the invention combines the three aforementioned functions, which may be incorporated within a system utilizing the invention set forth in the aforementioned copending patent application.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in the light of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.